So I will hopefully be participating in LD 24 and probably others after. Just wondering if there is an age limit cause I’m only fourteen. Also, can I use game maker cause I’m just not fluent enough in C++ yet to make a game over a weekend. If so I’m in and I will be using:

This entry was posted
on Sunday, August 5th, 2012 at 1:55 am and is filed under LD #24.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

8 Responses to “LD here I come (For the first time)”

There’s no age limit or imposed limitations to game engine usage (I think). As long as you release the source code or whatever game maker uses, you’ll be fine. Unless you’re doing the jam, in which case you only have to release the game.

Also, on the C++ statement, I don’t recommend C++ as your first major programming language nowadays. It’s outdated and you’d probably be better off learning C# or Java first. Those languages both follow good programming practices (most of the time) and will help in learning to develop manageable code. On top of that, with C# you can write games for Windows, Linux (w/ Mono), Xbox360, and PlayStation Vita (w/ PSM); and with Java you can write code to pretty much everything that has an implementation of it, including tons of mobile devices running Android.

Good luck on your first Ludum Dare and make sure to get sleep. I learned the hard way the first time I did the Ludum Dare. Sleep deprivation inevitably leads to one or more bad things near the end of the competition.

I didn’t know that c# was able to run on those platforms(since it uses the .NET framework and stuff) but I’ve kinda already learnt C++, it’s just making a game in 48hrs that seems hard. I plan on learning a range of programing languages to help me get started(Hopefully) in a career after school. Any tips? Thx

– If you’re programming video games, you could probably stay in high-level languages (everything that isn’t assembly) until you’re old and be fine because electronics just keep getting stronger and stronger. Lua is becoming increasingly popular for game scripting, so you might end up having to learn that as well.

– If you’re going into website stuff, you have to learn (X)HTML, CSS, JS (+jQuery), XML, php and/or ASP (and JSP too, I guess), possibly Python, PERL, and Ruby as well. It’s not as bad as it looks. I learned (X)HTML by the time I was 10. By the time I was 14 I knew CSS, JS, XML, php, and Python.

– If you head into regular application development, like any program that isn’t a game, you will need C# and Java. They seem to be the most popular for that among companies, especially Java. Although, I see it losing some popularity to C#.

– If you go into microcontroller, PLCs, and various other related things, C and whatever assembly language the device uses would help you more. I learned C, C++, and x86 assembly by the time I was 12. These languages are mostly time consuming to learn if you don’t have an understanding of underlying electronics. I only recently learned PLC assembly, although it’s all pretty much the same in the end.

Now, if you plan to do everything under the sun, which is how I am right now, learn as much as possible as young as possible, don’t wait. Right now is the best time to learn. I started a game making, website back-end designing, regular application, company when I was 19-years-old. I’m turning 21 in a month and I’m doing pretty well. There’s nothing wrong with having options to fall back on.